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The Constitution provides that a number of electors for choosing the President and Vice-President shall be appointed by each State, equal to the number of Senators and Representatives from that State, no one of them holding a public national office. Electors have been chosen in four different ways: by joint ballot of the State Legislatures, by a concurrent vote of the two branches of the Legislature, by a general vote and by a district vote. By 1872, the general ticket method was adopted in every State. An elector is chosen from each Congressional district. Originally the electors voted for two persons without designating either as President or Vice-President. The one receiving the greatest number of votes was President. If no one had a majority the House was to choose from the five highest. Under the Twelfth Amendment the electors vote for President and Vice-President as such, and if the election goes to the House of Representatives the choice is from the three highest instead of from the five highest, as originally provided.

[L., choosers], under the Empire, were princes having a voice in the election of the Emperor. The Elector of Hesse-Cassel is the only one who still retains the title, the rest having become kings, grand-dukes, etc. See Emperor ; Empire.